We spoke to Alan McEwan, Technical Representative at F Ball. He started off by telling us which are the areas where the business has the greatest environmental impact.

“As a manufacturer, energy usage, raw material consumption, and minimising waste are the main areas of focus. Therefore, working to reduce our energy consumption, minimising our use of raw materials, and optimising the amount of recycling we are able to do are currently high on our environmental agenda. The environmental standard ISO 14001 helps us to drive continual improvement throughout our business.

We evaluate all activities at our Staffordshire headquarters via a cross-functional Environmental Committee, as well as analysing the entire life cycle of our products when looking for ways to be more sustainable. This includes considering the materials that are used to make the products, our manufacturing processes, and providing recycling facilities for the end user. In terms of energy saving, we’ve implemented a range of initiatives, starting with simple measures, such as installing low energy lighting, to use energy more efficiently.

“We’ve also introduced changes to our manufacturing processes, such as utilising gravity-fed mixing plant to avoid the need for electric motors to pump material into the mixing vessels.
“We’ve invested heavily in photovoltaic solar panels and have around 1,000 on our main building roof which generates a significant proportion of our energy requirements, particularly in the summer months. We are continually investigating new technologies and opportunities to increase our renewable energy potential on site.

“In terms of material recycling we have switched much of our plastic packaging to use recycled plastic, which itself can be recycled a number of times. Over recent years, we’ve introduced a recycling scheme so flooring contractors can drop off empty plastic bottles and buckets that we use to package products, such as adhesives, primers and other liquids, for recycling.

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